Zihua's face remained expressionless. He immediately threw a punch of his own to meet it.
Boom!
The two fists collided head-on. Nan's body shook, and he staggered back a single step. Zihua, on the other hand, was forced back three steps.
Seeing this, Nan burst into wild laughter. "Haha! Zihua, I knew it! Anyone locked away in the Anti-Demon Dungeon for three years is bound to regress. You were once at the peak of the tenth level of the True Martial Realm, but now? You've barely stepped into the seventh level. You're way below me."
"And with that kind of weak-ass cultivation, you dare act tough in front of me? You must be looking to die!" Grinning viciously, Nan charged in again.
This time, a faint blood-red glow—like a flame—flared up around his clenched fist. It was clear Nan wasn't holding back anymore and had even activated a martial technique.
"Young Master!" Xuerou couldn't help but cry out.
Nearby, Shang and the others looked equally tense. They were clearly worried for Zihua. From that brief exchange earlier, they could all tell: that Zihua had only just entered the seventh level of the True Martial Realm, while Nan was already at its peak.
In terms of raw cultivation, Nan clearly held the advantage.
"Foolish." As Nan's fist came flying toward him, Zihua simply sneered.
Just as the punch—glowing faintly with bloodlight and brimming with power—got within half a foot of him, Zihua lightly tapped his foot, casually shifted to the side, and the punch whiffed right past him, slamming into nothing but air.
At the same time, Zihua raised his hand and slapped out.
Smack!
The crisp sound of the slap rang out loud and clear.
Zihua's palm landed square on Nan's cheek, sending him flying across the training ground. Midair, a bloody tooth went spinning out of his mouth.
"How utterly pathetic." Zihua looked down coldly at Nan, who lay sprawled on the ground, struggling to get back up. A flicker of disdain tugged at the corner of his lips. "You thought just because your cultivation was a little higher than mine, you could beat me? What a joke."
In this world, cultivation was the foundation of strength—no doubt about that—but it was far from everything.
Two people with the same realm could have vastly different combat power.
Take Nan for example. Sure, his cultivation was a bit higher, but his talent was painfully average. Against someone like Zihua—a prodigy who had awakened a Supreme Bloodline—he didn't even need to draw his sword. A casual move was more than enough to dominate him.
"Nan, consider this a warning. You'd do well to remember your place. You're nothing but a dog raised by my Bai family. You eat our food, yet you dare bare your fangs at your master? If there's a next time, it won't end with just a slap." Zihua's voice was icy cold.
"Zihua, you—You..." Nan was both furious and humiliated. He pointed at Zihua, but couldn't even get the words out.
Zihua had already turned away. "Xuerou, let's go."
"Yes," Xuerou replied sweetly with a nod, her face barely able to hide the joy and excitement shining in her eyes.
The group standing nearby—Shang and the others—were just as fired up, though they were doing their best to hold it in.
But just as Zihua was about to leave the training ground...
Nan finally managed to stand. His face was flushed red with humiliation as he growled, "Zihua, just wait! My older brother will be back soon. The shame you've brought me today—he'll pay it back to you double!"
"Your brother? Wei, you mean?" Zihua chuckled softly.
He remembered Wei somewhat. Sure, the guy was considered one of the more talented members of the younger generation. But compared to Zihua? He was nowhere close.
Wei was already nineteen and had only just reached the peak of the tenth level of the True Martial Realm. Zihua had hit that level when he was fifteen—and that was before his Supreme Bloodline had even awakened.
Even though his cultivation had regressed, catching up to Wei again wouldn't be difficult at all.
"Don't pretend you don't care, Zihua! I'm telling you—next month, the Bai Family's Sword Token Tournament begins! My big brother's going to participate, and with his strength, that sword token will absolutely be his! Once he has it, he'll become the leader of our generation in the Bai Family! From that point on, all of us will answer to him!"
"You included!" Nan added with a shout.
"The Sword Token Tournament?" Zihua's expression finally shifted.
The Bai Family had always had two Sword Tokens. One was held by the Clan Leader, symbolizing supreme authority.
The other belonged to the top youth of the clan and granted them the privileges of a Young Clan Leader when traveling outside.
But these sword tokens were always contested internally—only members of the Bai family had ever been eligible. Outsiders weren't even allowed to compete.
And now...
"I didn't think Lei's faction had pushed the family this far—so far that even the Sword Token Tournament is open to outsiders," Zihua said grimly.
If an outsider were to seize the Bai Family's sword token, wouldn't that make the entire Bai Family a laughingstock?
"Nan!" Zihua turned around. His cold eyes locked onto Nan like a death god. "Listen carefully. Go back and tell Wei: that the Bai Family's sword token is for the Bai bloodline only. If he dares to reach for it... I'll cut him down myself during the battle."
With that, Zihua turned and walked away.
Not long after, Zihua returned to his residence.
"Young Master," Xuerou said, "there are less than twenty days left until the Sword Token Tournament. According to tradition, every youth planning to participate must pass the family's pre-selection assessment at least half a month in advance. The minimum requirement is to have reached the eighth level of the True Martial Realm—and the final day to qualify is in just three days."
"I got it. You're dismissed," Zihua replied.
Xuerou nodded obediently and left.
Inside the room, Zihua sat cross-legged, and countless fragments of memory surfaced in his mind.
They were the inherited memories that had come with the awakening of his Supreme Bloodline. Within them were one cultivation method and one forbidden technique.
The cultivation method was passed down exclusively to bloodline awakeners—it didn't even have a name.
Though Zihua's bloodline had awakened three years ago, he had spent all that time locked in the Anti-Demon Dungeon, never getting the chance to cultivate it. But he had long since mastered every detail of the method in theory. Only now did he begin to actually put it into practice.
As he started cultivating, Zihua immediately felt the spiritual energy of heaven and earth rushing toward him at a terrifying speed, as if the entire space around him were trembling.
Within moments, he could feel his cultivation level rise by a full tier.
"Too fast... this speed of absorbing spiritual energy from the heavens and earth... it's way too fast! It's probably dozens of times faster than before my bloodline awakened," Zihua muttered, startled even by his own progress.
And that wasn't all—Zihua could clearly sense that this cultivation method drastically improved the quality of his spiritual power. The explosive force he could now unleash in an instant was far greater than before.
If before, with his seventh level of the True Martial Realm cultivation, he had been slightly at a disadvantage against someone like Nan—who was at the peak of the same stage—then now, even though he was still technically at the same level, he could face Nan head-on without being the weaker one.
"No wonder they say that bloodline awakeners are born prodigies. Just this one cultivation method alone boosts training speed to dozens of times that of an average person. How could anyone compete with that?" Zihua sighed.
As for the forbidden technique...
It was called Immortal-Slaying Forbidden Technique—a technique that forcefully burned the power of one's own bloodline to achieve a massive short-term surge in strength.
Of course, being a forbidden technique, it came with heavy drawbacks and was only meant to be used in life-or-death situations.
"I used to be at the very peak of the tenth level of the True Martial Realm. My cultivation only regressed because I hadn't absorbed spiritual energy in such a long time. Now that I'm back to training, things should go much more smoothly. And with my current training speed being so much faster than normal, I should be able to reach the eighth level within three days."
Zihua slowly clenched his fists and began cultivating in earnest.